It’s a list of the contents but not a table. I don’t think ‘table’ enters into
the thinking of a contents list any more, does it?
Those examples were lovely but not quite suitable our world of small screen
viewing, sadly.
The people I asked for their preference did take my words literally. Some took
issue with the word ‘contents’ because the contents is generally in the actual
page you are looking at.
Bye…
From: austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Sonja McShane
Sent: Thursday, 2 March 2017 2:59 PM
To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: atw: Re: A question of a name: table of contents or contents list
I never thought of referring to a TOC as being beautiful before, but there are
some fantastic examples shown there.
Regards using Table of Contents and being literal, are the content items
actually presented in a table? If not, then it is not a ‘table’ of contents.
Sonja
From:
austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
[mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Swapnil Ogale
Sent: Thursday, 2 March 2017 2:49 PM
To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: atw: Re: A question of a name: table of contents or contents list
Janet - What about something like Outline? As in Show Outline.
On a semi-related note, have a look at some beautiful TOCs here:
https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/07/table-of-contents-creative-and-beautiful-examples/
Swapnil
On 2 March 2017 at 14:33, Corey Wallis
<corey.wallis@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:corey.wallis@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
Hi Jane,
My immediate thought is that either ‘Contents List’ or ‘Table of Contents’
work. It depends on your target audience and the terminology that they’re
familiar with. Additionally consistency is very important, and the change in
terminology would need to be applied to both old and new documents.
My main concern is the loss of the action word.
As I understand it, the Contents List isn’t displayed when the document first
opens. The user needs to click on this heading in order to show the Contents
List. The action word helps to make it clear that this is an element that the
user can click on in order for the action to occur.
In my mind either ‘Contents List’ or ‘Table of Contents’ works, depending on
your target audience. I personally would be making an argument to retain the
action word.
I’m definitely interested in seeing what other subscribers to this list think.
Hope this helps.
-Corey
--
Corey Wallis, BBus, BSc(Hons)
Business Analyst, Student Systems
Flinders University
From:
austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
[mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]
On Behalf Of Janet Taylor
Sent: Thursday, 2 March 2017 12:10 PM
To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: atw: A question of a name: table of contents or contents list
I am giving this message on my documentation pages that are opened on a PC
without a table of contents:
Show Contents List (the capitals are because it’s for mostly American readers)
I’m sure you can guess what it means.
I selected these words after doing a survey of my mostly young and
non-native-English speaking colleagues. (Most favoured a graphic but I wasn’t
willing to do that .)
Now I’m being asked to change it to: Table of contents
No action, just the name.
I thought Table of contents was a name that most of us older people might use
but I’ve been shown many examples of Table of contents in use by large
organisations (Apple being one of them).
Could I have your opinion please?
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